Scotland overtakes England in tackling superbugs

Scotland has overtaken England in tackling hospital superbugs under the SNP, new figures published in England show.

The Health Protection Agency have published their National Point Prevalence Survey, showing that in England there was a prevalence of 6.4% in 2011 – a fall from 8.2% in 2006. Comparable figures published by Health Protection Scotland in April show a rate of only 4.9% in Scotland.

Earlier in the year, Scottish Labour had tried to claim that the infection rate in Scotland was 9.5% - among the highest in Europe. However, they were left red-faced after it emerged that the figures they were talking about dated from 2006 – when Labour were in power.

This confirms that, while infection rates were higher in Scotland when Labour were in power, this has been reversed under the SNP.

Commenting on the figures, SNP MSP Jim Eadie – a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee – said:

“There is a downward trend across the UK, but NHS staff in Scotland have to be congratulated for reversing the trend in which the rate was higher in Scotland than in England. Thanks to their efforts, hospital infections in Scotland have fallen sharply and we are now doing much better than south of the border.

“Labour tried to pretend that Scotland has one of the highest rates in Europe – never mind the UK – but this quickly backfired when we found out that the figures they used dated from 2006.

“All Labour managed to do is confirm that – when they were in charge – the infection rate in Scotland was far higher than it was in England.

“There is no room for complacency, but the huge investments made by NHS staff in tackling hospital bugs, together with a significant focus on hand-washing, unannounced inspections and a host of other measures are paying off.

“Instead of trying to score cheap political points, Labour should be welcoming the huge progress made and putting forward constructive ideas as to how we can bring down rates even further.”